Blog Hop

What a fab way to finish the year: With a re-cap/where-I’m-at post as part of an Author Blog Hop. So, here goes.

A brief run-down of 2013 from me: My book, HEALER’S TOUCH, was released at the end of January by Kristell Ink (part of Grimbold Books). I think it’s done not too badly for a debut novel published by a small publisher. My understanding is that Kristell Ink are really taking off, so I feel privileged to have got in on the ground floor. It’s all up, up, up from here.

We hit a bit of a snag when we split from Holland House to become Grimbold authors, but that’s all done and dusted now, all smooth sailing (Gosh, look at the cliches! Just look at them!).

As far as the rest of life goes, my son turned 3 in September and finally moved on from his terrible twos soon after and is becoming quite a pleasure to have around (phew!). And work has just seemed to get busier and busier. I’m sure it’s all very positive, but we (my husband and I) are stressed a good deal of the time (we work at the same company). Not super great for our parenting and my writing, but we’re managing. There are positive moves being made at work that may lead to reduced stress… or more, who knows?

Here’s how a blog hop works. Elaine tagged me, so I answer the four blog hop questions in my blog, which I will link to Elaine’s answers to the same questions on her blog. Then I will reach out to five random authors to continue the hop!

Read on to find my answers to the blog hop questions.

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What are you writing?

I am currently (still) working on the sequel to HEALER’S TOUCH, titled WARRIOR’S TOUCH. Where HT introduced you to Llew and watche dher relationship with Jonas grow – a very important development ahead of what they still have to face – WT will delve deeper into what makes Jonas tick. While Llew was the one with the most to lose in HT, I think Jonas is the one to watch in WT, even though Llew is still in trouble, too.

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How does this differ from your last work?

In many ways, it doesn’t. I’m writing in the same world with many of the same characters. However, as mentioned above, the focus of the story shifts a bit. And, hopefully, the writing is better…

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Why do you write?

Because I can’t not.

To start with, I took up writing to cure boredom, then it became an addiction… Now… well, I’ve got plenty of other things to fill in my days with, but I need to get another story out for those who enjoyed HT, and, well… I still love creating through words.

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What is your process?

Erm.. avoid procrastination…

Ha! No… More likely it’s: procrastinate, procrastinate, oh that’s a good idea for a blog post, oh oops I had better knuckle down and write something today, oh darn the child is awake, back to reality…

But, over all, I ruminate on ideas, then I outline roughly (covering the major plot points), then I usually begin writing, then I re-outline, adjust what needs adjusting, push forward with more writing, re-assess, re-outline if necessary, re-align what’s gone before, push ahead… rinse and repeat until done. Perhaps one day I’ll be better at just coming up with an idea, outlining it and writing it… but I’m not sure. There are always details I miss in my outlining that I catch as my characters actually deal with things and then I have to pull back and re-assess. It just is that way. And sometimes when I’m deep in the writing I miss what’s going on with the bigger picture… both can lead me astray, so I find I need to dig deep and pull back, dig deep and pull back, constantly…

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Well, that’s it from me. I do hope you enjoyed your visit today. Now I shall find 5 other authors to ‘tag’.

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If you enjoyed this post, you can vote for it over at Springfree Family Times and help me win a trampoline for my family!! (NB: They’ve called my blog the “Deb E Relene” blog… I understand the error. Really, it’s Deb E, or Deb Erelene, or Deb E Howell, but, well…)